This means they had fun.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Breakfast - nearly every morning. Either on Alpine Valley spelt bread or Trader Joe's organic whole wheat bread.Lunch - Pesto Tuna sandwich

Mix homemade pesto with tuna and put on favorite bread with your favorite cheese. This is fontina on mine (Nice cheese is much less expensive at Trader Joe's, and I love me some nice cheese). Tomato with a little salt on it and some greens. Made for a yummy lunch.

Dinner - Apple Gorgonzola pizza

I actually got this recipe from Trader Joe's (I love their sample foods) I altered it a little. You get some whole wheat pizza dough (make your own of get it from TJ's like I do) and put alfredo sauce on it. Top with pieces of apple (they used pear at TJ's but I didn't have any) and sliced avocado and sliced onions. Then put 1/2 cup of gorgonzola cheese on top. Don't do more like we did...it is too strong. You could also use feta or something like it. I think the recipe called for some mozzeralla on top also (fresh of course) but I forgot to get some so we put all the gorgonzola on and it was very strong, but still good.

bake as long as it takes for your dough to bake or until the cheese is golden.
Let cool and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar. If you don't have any, don't fret it is good without it.
Now for my alfredo sauce recipe. You can use some from the jar, but if your like me you don't like that.

1 cube of cream cheese

1 cup milk

1 cup Parmesan cheese

Now some have been known to put a stick of butter in it also, but as I realized that the butter is mostly for the smooth consistency I could do without it and have a sorta grainy alfredo sauce. You could add butter in little increments if you think you need to. Russ also likes to add a bit of ricotta cheese if we have any left from when I do lasagna. We eat it about once a month on whole wheat pasta with steamed broccoli and chopped tomatoes. Yummy.

I realized while typing this that I wrote Trader Joe's a lot (which I will now refer to as TJ's). I do this because it is where I shop. I don't get my produce there I get it at the Superstition Ranch Market and then everything else at TJ's and we spend about $70.00 a WEEK on groceries (When I first typed this I wrote $70 a month, which I believe would be impossible and still be nourished. Sorry for the extreme error:). I am not sure if that is good or bad, but we can budget that much and feel like we are eating healthy and well. Sometimes if I am going to go to a regular grocery store I will get milk and Tilamook cheese:) And if I get a Costco card the we will probably spend $150 a week on food.

Another Thursday at the carousel

Only this time Charlie came too. The boys rode on the bench and Gracie rode on the gorilla.

And Myles rode on the elephant and we could NOT get him to look at me.After we played outside for awhile and the kids played by the fountain. Gracie kept asking me to take her shoes off and I knew she wanted me to so she could put her feet in the water so I didn't. Well, she did it anyway. And then stood up.

She got nice and cool. Silly little girl.

Obsessions

From time to time William changes his obsession, but there is usually an obsession. For the past month or two the obsession has been....

can you guess...

is it a super hero?....

is it a new movie?....

is it a food?.....

here it is

That's right, it is a cow.

I guess not a cow, but cows. Preferably black and white with no udders.

The cow below does not have an udder(according to William), in case you were wondering.

He kept asking to go to a friends house so he could play with their cow so I told him we would go to D.I. and find a toy cow. This is the best we could find and it has been his good friend ever since. When I asked what his name was he said, "Aslan...is Aslan a boy?" When I said yes he declared that Aslan it was. A couple of days later while he was playing I heard him say, "run like the wind Aslan."


When we were rummaging through stuff at another thrift store William came across this barn and insisted that he needed it for Aslan's home. I agree. And I love the look on his face in the above picture.
At our last trip to the mall he discovered this stationary cow that he could sit on (because I don't pay a dollar for toys to shake).

I can't wait for the weather to cool off so we can head out to a dairy farm and he can see the cows in action.

Oh, and every time he asks for a drink of milk he says, "may I have some cows milk please?"

What a kid.

Carousel Dreams

I wonder how many times I have blogged about the carousel? Or how many pictures I have of my children riding it:/ It should only increase with it being free every Thursday and us in the process of buying a house about one mile from it:)
They love it so much. A few weeks ago their friends Nathan and Emma showed up after we were already on and William LOVED having someone to wave to each time around. The when it was their turn every time they came around he waved and CRACKED UP laughing. I mean really laughing. It was very fun to watch.

I mean, could she look happier? I love it when my children are happy. It does a mommy good.

And now the mall also gives the kids a free movie on Thursdays. Last week we saw UP and yesterday we saw it again but we waited until Daddy was done working and our friends the Cox's came too. I really like that movie.

lounging around

Yesterday I was writing things down in my calendar as the children helped themselves to some food in the kitchen. A slice of bread for Gracie and an apple for William. I turned around to find them lounging on my new couch with their snacks, with their feet up on the chair.

They just looked to relaxed.



Russ has told me it is a very comfy couch and he has taken a few naps on it because of it.

I'd say it was worth the 20 bucks.

And I'd say I love it when my children get a long nicely.

Pep Talk

Sometimes William is ornery. Sometimes he says "no" to everything I say.

I am not sure how I discovered it but I figured out if I take a minute or two when he wakes up in the morning to hug him, snuggle with him, and rub his back and talk to him about what kind of day we are going to have, things go much smoother. It needs to be a daily ritual for us, sometimes I forget, but I am getting better at remembering our pep-talk (it is for me too).

Saturday is a Special Day

Last Saturday was a special day because we had nothing planned. William woke me up and we went outside because it was overcast and sprinkling and I read my book on the porch swing while he ran around. This was the view

Soon Gracie and Russ joined us and we had cereal for breakfast (a special treat).

William soon started fighting all the boxes a neighbor left for us on our front porch.

It was quite entertaining and pretty loud.

He's got some pretty awesome moves.

As I sat and watched him I realized that I have a very fun little guy. I know that shouldn't be something I realize only now and I did know it before, but I guess being around him every day the changes in him a gradual and I tend to focus on the not so-nice-things rather than the fact that he is hilarious. I am trying my hardest to focus on his awesomeness - and it makes my life so much happier.

We spent the rest of the morning helping our neighbor finish up moving. All of us a little damp from natures showers and it was so fun having Gracie helping me clean and William running around entertaining everyone. I have found that one of the things I treasure most is working with my family (my family now and the family I grew up in). I am not sure why but it brings me a lot of pleasure. Maybe I can look at our next move this way and have a wonderful experience instead of a stressful one. Later in the afternoon we went to BBQ with our friends the Cox's. It cleared up enough for swimming and then after was cool enough to relax outside. Gracie was in the swing and I had to leave her for a minute and she was content to just sit there. Then I heard her laughing and looked to see this

her brother pushing her. This made my heart happy.

Lots of things made my heart happy today. Like William showing me how high he could jump on the trampoline.

and good BBQ
With good friends. William and Gracie sure like Charlie (and little Myles).

Another thing that made me happy was that I left out camera on the bench outside for the whole weekend and it still works. Whew!

Out of a funk

We have been in a weird funk the last month (meaning August). For example there are only 57 images in my August folder when the other months have 250 - 700 images depending on how busy they are. I just wasn't taking pictures. The kids and I were sick of and on (more on) for 4 weeks! Russ was too for some of the time. So we got really used to vegging out. The kids like this -

and I on the internet. In fact I am still struggling to break the habit of being on the computer so much. It is hard because with trying to buy a house and such there is a lot I need to be on the computer for, but sometimes it is too much. I find no matter what I am doing I feel the computer calling me to it and I don't like it.

This last weekend was nice because I didn't spend hardly any time on it and this week I have made sure the kids and I get out of the house everyday. I went to the library and got us all some books. Needless to say this week has seemed to fly by. Today I took the kids to the carousel and to see the movie UP. Oh my, was that a great movie. I got choked up quite a few times. In the beginning Gracie loudly asked if the old man was a bad guy and William (also loudly) informed her that "he's not bad, he's just grumpy." My kids have been making me smile a lot lately. I kinda feel like I have awaken from a drowsy sleep and I am renewed and refreshed and ready to be the mom and wife I want to be. Maybe getting sick every now and then is good because it leaves me felling a greater appreciation for my lovely life. So let the posting begin. I am back on schedule (whatever that means).

Food

So there are some gradual changes that have happened with me and food over the years. And it will continue to happen. It all started with pregnancy. I wanted to eat better for the baby but I also realized that it was something that I wanted to do for myself. I have learned bits here and there about how to eat better.
I'm in no way perfect, but I try. I think I have expressed somewhere on my blog(s) that I have cut way back on meat. This happened with my last pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage. I had known that I wanted to eat less meat, but I was stuck in a routine and menu plan. With that pregnancy I wanted nothing to do with raw meat and since I was the cook I would look at my menu plan before I would go to the store and substitute a vegetable that sounded good for the meat. Then we moved in with my sister who also doesn't eat a lot of meat and now I rarely buy it and I LOVE IT. I no longer have to wash the knives and cutting boards in between items and worry about getting everything the meat juice touched disinfected. I am not a germ freak unless it comes to the meat ones that can KILL. I also spend less money on groceries - awesome. and I am eating more veggies - double awesome.
Not too long ago I stumbled upon raw diets. People who eat everything raw and don't cook anything. I was confused when I first heard of this and didn't see how it was possible, but when I learned more I became very interested. Mainly because one of the things people on raw diets claim is to have more energy. I want that. It is a huge lifestyle change (tons of props to my friend Lauren for doing it) and one neither I or my family is ready for.
This is my plan:
breakfast -
oatmeal or 1 egg in a frame - egg in a piece of spelt(half the calories and carbs) toast.
Snack -
Green smoothies (which consist of fresh fruit a leafy green and a small amount of apple juice water and flax.)
Lunch -
Whatever it is half the plate will be raw veggies
Dinner -
Again half the plate will be raw (or almost raw;) veggies. (This one will take time to build up to because I don't believe in doing things all at once, it takes time)

And drink LOTS of water.

And I am hoping to get better at doing this menu so that by the new year we are eating much healthier and it will be a breeze because we are so used to it. Lets hope. Lets alos hope that we will be in our new house with a garden and our own chickens.

Pictured is what some call cowboy caviar or Texas caviar and I add it to fresh romaine and a few chips and and dressing. It is yummy and a great way to eat half a raw meal. I will try and share other good food ideas I have.